Majority of Americans opposed to sending US ground troops to fight IS: Poll

Washington: A large majority of Americans are opposed to the idea of sending US troops on the ground to fight the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, a new poll has revealed.

According to Politico, the CNN/ORC poll released on Monday shows that 73 percent of Americans favor the use of military airstrikes in Syria, and half of those polled say they would back airstrikes in Syria even if the United States were acting alone without allies.

However, while 60 percent of Americans were not in support of sending US ground troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the extremist group, 38 percent said they were in favour of dispatching ground troops to the conflict zones.

The poll, which was conducted from Sept. 25 to Sept. 28 among 1,055 adults, showed that 54 percent Americans were not in support of arming Syrian rebel forces to help them combat the IS.

Meanwhile, 42 percent were in favour of providing ammunition to rebel groups, the report said.